Part I: Lecture – Paris during the Reign of the “Citizen King” Louis-Philippe
The introductory lecture focuses on the cultural scene of the metropolis on the Seine around 1840. Wagner, like his compatriot Heinrich Heine, described the Parisian cultural scene of that time in amusing feature articles; and it is through these that Paris will be portrayed, to quote Wagner’s scathing remark about the “femme entretenue of the world”—“the mistress who allows herself to be kept.” Richard Wagner lived in this vibrant city from 1839 to 1842.
Dr. Frank Piontek (Bayreuth) will discuss the cultural and social life of the French metropolis, where Wagner had hoped in vain to arrive. It was here that he sought to make contact with the “King of Grand Opéra,” Giacomo Meyerbeer, and it was here that he came into contact with the ideas of the socialists and the German émigré Karl Marx.
Part II: Concert – Paris, a Source of Inspiration for the Arts
The second part is a musical tribute to Paris as a center of Jewish life, featuring settings of Heinrich Heine’s poems by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and others, as well as music by Franz Liszt, Friedrich Kalkbrenner, and Philip Lasser, performed by Esther Choi, mezzo-soprano, David Jun Chen, and Paul Weigold, piano.
Tickets priced at 26/18/reduced 8 euros are available in the online store at karten@villa-seligmann.de or by phone at 0511 844887-200.
